Week00 - Preparing for #NCSAM

September 26, 2016

Events

NCSAM

Editor's Note: National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) is coming up and we are enabling organizations to make this most of October. Every Monday, for the next six weeks, we will be posting a new blog on how to make the most of NCSAM and the NCSAM Planning Kit. The planning kit is everything you need for a successful October, to include daily activities, resources and templates. This week we focus on Week00, Preparing and Communicating For October.

October is next week and I could not be more excited. Not only does October mean the coming of fall (my favorite season of the year) but its all about security awareness. While NCSAM does not officially kick off until next week, this week is critical for getting people engaged and excited with what is about to come. If you have not done so already, be sure to take your communications team out to lunch. Get them excited about NCSAM and ask them for ideas on how they can help. The key to any successful October, or to be honest for any security awareness program, is having a strong partnership with your communications team. Get them excited about being part of your awareness program and helping make a difference.

The other key step to this week is communicate to your organization about what is coming. Don't focus on all the different activities but instead focus on WHY people should care, how will October benefit them. Engage people at an emotional level. Once you have people excited and listening, then you can go into the details of WHAT and WHEN. To do that focus on how October will be both fun and benefit people personally. To help you with just that, be sure to download and use the Communications template from Week00 of the NCSAM Planning Kit.

Lance Spitzner

Director, SANS Security Awareness

Lance Spitzner has over 20 years of security experience in cyber threat research, security architecture, awareness and training. He helped pioneer the fields of deception and cyber intelligence and founded the Honeynet Project. In addition, Lance has published three security books, consulted in over 25 countries and helped over 350 organizations build programs to manage their human risk. Lance is a frequent presenter, serial tweeter ( @lspitzner ) and works on numerous community security projects. Mr. Spitzner served as an armor officer in the Army's Rapid Deployment Force and earned his MBA from the University of Illinois.